But not every Instagram contest works in the same way. A simple comment giveaway is designed for quick participation, while Story campaigns, Mention & Hashtag contests, and microsite-based photo or voting contests support different goals and levels of involvement.
With Easypromos, we can manage different types of Instagram contests and giveaways from a single platform, including comment-based giveaways, Instagram Stories campaigns, Mention & Hashtag contests, voting contests, and promotions hosted on a microsite.
In this guide, we explain the main ways to run an Instagram contest, when to use each format, and the best practices that can help increase participation and visibility.
How to Run an Instagram Contest
An Instagram contest is a promotional campaign where users complete a specific action for the chance to win a prize. Depending on the format, they might comment on a post, reply to a Story, publish their own content, or submit an entry through a microsite.
The first step is to choose the mechanic that best matches your goal. If you want quick engagement, a comment-based giveaway may be enough. If you want to collect UGC, a Mention & Hashtag Contest is a better fit. For lead generation, photo submissions, or public voting, a microsite-based contest gives you more flexibility and control.
Below, we compare the main Instagram contest formats and when to use each one.
Which Instagram Contest Format Should You Choose?
Different Instagram contest formats are suited to different goals. Some are designed to generate quick interaction directly on Instagram, while others are better for collecting user-generated content, participant data, or votes.
Use the comparison below to identify the format that best matches what you want participants to do and the type of engagement you want to generate.
You can also combine several formats as part of the same campaign strategy. For example, a comment-based giveaway can generate initial engagement, while a UGC or voting contest can create a deeper level of participation.
What Can You Achieve With an Instagram Contest?
The format you choose will determine what kind of participation your campaign generates. Some Instagram contests are designed for quick interaction, while others help brands collect UGC, increase visibility, gather participant data, or involve the audience in voting.
Below are the main Instagram contest formats you can manage with Easypromos and the objectives each one supports.
Comment-Based Instagram Giveaway
A comment-based Instagram giveaway is one of the simplest ways to generate interaction directly on your profile. Publish a giveaway post, explain the prize and participation requirements, and ask users to leave a comment to enter.
You can ask participants to answer a simple question or mention someone they would like to share the prize with. Keeping the mechanic easy to understand helps reduce participation friction and encourages more users to take part.
Bosch Home Appliances: a simple comment-based Instagram giveaway
Bosch Home Appliances, the home appliance brand, gave followers the chance to win a Bosch dishwasher and a three-month supply of Finish Ultimate Quantum dishwashing pods.
To enter, users had to follow the Bosch Home Appliances Instagram account, like the giveaway post, and tag a friend in the comments.
This is a clear example of how brands can use a straightforward comment mechanic to generate participation around a desirable prize without requiring users to leave Instagram.
You can also combine an Instagram Giveaway with Instagram Messaging Automations to automatically send participants a direct message after they comment. This can be used to share campaign information, links, coupon codes, or guide participants toward another action.
Once the participation period ends, Easypromos can import eligible comments through Meta’s official APIs and randomly select the winner and alternates.
Best when you want to:
- Run a simple Instagram giveaway
- Increase engagement on a post
- Generate quick participation
- Encourage conversation around your brand or prize
Instagram Story Giveaway – Reply to a Story
Instagram Stories are a useful format for creating quick, direct interactions with your audience. Instead of asking users to comment on a feed post, you can publish a Story and invite followers to reply by message to participate.
You can keep the mechanic simple or ask participants to include a specific word, answer, or hashtag in their reply. This makes it easier to organize responses and, when relevant, filter eligible participants.
With Easypromos Instagram Story Giveaway, we can automatically import Story replies and randomly select winners among eligible participants.
Best when you want to:
- Increase interaction through Instagram Stories
- Encourage direct responses from followers
- Run a quick participation mechanic
- Reward users who engage with your Story
UGC Contest on Instagram Stories: Post a Story + Mention
Another way to generate participation through Stories is to ask users to publish their own Story and mention your brand. This format is especially useful for campaigns that encourage customers to create and share branded content with their own audiences.
You can define what participants need to show in their Story, such as a product, an event experience, or personalized content created as part of the promotion. When users mention your Instagram account, Easypromos can identify eligible Story mentions and include them in the giveaway.
Coffee Island Cyprus: turn personalized content into Instagram Story UGC
Coffee Island Cyprus, the Cypriot branch of the international coffee chain, invited users to take its Coffee Moods Quiz, upload a photo, and generate a personalized AI Coffee Mood image.
To complete their entry, participants shared the generated image on their Instagram Story and mentioned @coffeeisland_cy. Their Story had to remain public for at least 24 hours to qualify for the giveaway, which offered flight tickets for two.
The brand also extended the campaign beyond participation itself. It published a Reel announcing the winner and featuring content from participants, followed by another post showing the winner collecting the prize at Coffee Island headquarters.
This type of campaign turns participants into content creators while giving the brand additional UGC that can help extend the promotion’s visibility.
Best when you want to:
- Encourage customers to share branded content
- Generate user-generated content (UGC)
- Increase organic visibility through Instagram Stories
- Turn a promotional experience into shareable content
Another example: Bebang HaloHalo, a Filipino dessert brand, used a Story mention campaign to encourage customers to share branded content on Instagram. The campaign helped increase sales by more than 25%.
Learn more in the success story below.
Mention & Hashtag Contest on Instagram
A Mention & Hashtag Contest asks participants to publish a photo, video, or Reel on their own public Instagram profile, mention your brand, and include a campaign hashtag.
Easypromos can automatically collect eligible posts and display them in a public gallery. From there, you can keep the mechanic simple or add voting, a jury stage, or a random winner selection.
Monrovia Plants: combine retailer activation with an Instagram Mention & Hashtag Contest
Monrovia Plants, a U.S. plant brand, promoted its Bee a Winner campaign through participating garden centers.
Customers could enter local giveaways in store, while the Grand Prize drawing added an Instagram UGC mechanic. To participate, users posted a photo, video, or Reel featuring a Bee a Winner display or a favorite pollinator plant, mentioned @monroviaplants, and used #BeeAWinner.
The Grand Prize was a $500 Monrovia Plants shopping spree at a participating garden center.
Retail partners also promoted the campaign through their own Instagram accounts, helping extend its reach while keeping the participation mechanic consistent across locations.
Brooklyn Fitboxing: combine UGC, public voting, and a jury
Brooklyn Fitboxing, an international fitness franchise, used a Mention & Hashtag Contest for its Challenge 300 campaign.
Participants uploaded a Reel training the Final Round of Challenge 296, mentioned @brooklynfitboxing, and used #bfchallenge300. Qualifying videos were collected in an Easypromos gallery, where the public voted to choose 12 finalists. A professional jury then selected the four winners, who traveled to Madrid to take part in the official Challenge 300 recording.
This shows how a Mention & Hashtag Contest can go beyond collecting UGC and become a multi-stage campaign with public voting and jury selection.
Best when you want to:
- Collect user-generated content from Instagram
- Increase campaign visibility through mentions and hashtags
- Build a public gallery with participant content
- Add public voting or a jury stage
- Create a more participatory brand campaign
Photo, UGC, or Voting Contest Promoted on Instagram
For more complete photo, UGC, or voting contests, Instagram can be used as the promotional channel while participation takes place on a dedicated microsite.
This approach gives you more control over the campaign. Participants can submit content through a registration form, entries can be moderated and displayed in a branded public gallery, and you can enable public voting or add a jury stage.
Promote the contest on Instagram through posts, Stories, a link in your bio, or Instagram Messaging Automations that direct interested users to the campaign microsite.
CPI Hotels: use Instagram to drive participation and voting on a microsite
CPI Hotels, a hotel group in Central Europe, ran a UGC contest inviting participants to submit drawings through a dedicated campaign microsite and other participation channels.
The entries were moderated and displayed in a central public gallery, where users could vote for their favorites. Instagram and Facebook were among the channels used to promote the campaign and drive traffic to the microsite.
CPI Hotels also used Instagram Messaging Automations to help direct users to the campaign. The promotion generated 114 entries, 2,605 votes, and more than 45,800 microsite visits.
This type of setup is useful when you want Instagram to generate visibility and traffic while keeping submissions, moderation, galleries, and voting within a controlled branded experience.
Best when you want to:
- Run a photo, UGC, or voting contest
- Collect participant data and leads
- Moderate and display entries in a public gallery
- Enable public voting or jury evaluation
- Use Instagram to drive traffic to a branded campaign
Best Practices for Running an Instagram Contest
Choosing the right mechanic is only part of the process. Clear participation requirements, a relevant prize, strong promotion, and transparent winner selection all help improve the quality of participation and the overall campaign experience.
Choose the right Instagram contest format
Start with the goal you want to achieve.
A comment-based giveaway works well for quick engagement. A Story campaign can encourage direct interaction or UGC. A Mention & Hashtag Contest is better suited to collecting public content from participants, while a microsite-based contest gives you more control over submissions, participant data, galleries, and voting.
Choosing the format before defining the rest of the campaign helps keep the participation mechanic aligned with your goal.
Keep participation requirements clear
Make it immediately obvious what users need to do to enter.
For a comment giveaway, this might be as simple as answering a question or mentioning someone in the comments. For a UGC contest, explain exactly what participants need to publish, which hashtag and mention they must include, and whether their Instagram profile needs to be public.
The more effort you ask from participants, the more important it is to make the instructions easy to understand.
Offer a prize that matches the level of effort
The prize should feel valuable enough to justify what participants are being asked to do.
A simple comment giveaway can work with a relatively straightforward prize. A campaign that requires users to create a Reel, upload original content, register on a microsite, or compete through several stages usually needs a stronger incentive.
Publish clear rules and eligibility requirements
Define the participation period, eligibility criteria, prize conditions, winner-selection method, and any requirements that could affect whether an entry is valid.
Clear rules make the campaign easier to manage and help participants understand what to expect from the beginning.
Promote your Instagram contest
Even a strong contest mechanic needs enough visibility to generate participation. Promote the campaign consistently throughout the participation period rather than relying on a single announcement.
Use Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories to introduce the campaign, explain how to enter, and remind followers before it closes. If the contest is hosted on an external microsite, make the participation route easy to find through a link in your bio, a Story link, or Instagram Messaging Automations that send users directly to the campaign after they interact with your content.
You can also extend the campaign through email, your website, other social networks, QR codes, or paid promotion when you want to reach a larger or more targeted audience.
For longer campaigns, publish reminders and highlight entries, finalists, or voting stages to keep the promotion visible and give followers new reasons to engage.
Match the promotion to the participation route
The way you promote the contest should make it immediately clear where participation happens.
For native Instagram giveaways, users should be able to understand the entry mechanic directly from the post or Story. For microsite-based contests, make the CTA explicit and guide users to the participation page with as little friction as possible.
Mistakes to Avoid in Instagram Contests
Even a well-planned Instagram contest can create friction if the participation mechanic is unclear or encourages low-quality interactions. Keep the campaign easy to understand and avoid tactics that can undermine trust or participation quality.
Avoid encouraging spam participation
Do not require excessive commenting, tagging, or Story sharing to earn additional entries.
A simple mechanic is usually easier for participants to understand and creates a better experience than asking users to repeat the same action multiple times.
Avoid using likes to determine winners
Instagram likes are not a reliable voting method and do not provide the controls needed to manage fraud or validate participation.
If voting is part of the contest, use a dedicated voting system that lets you manage entries, apply participation controls, and monitor voting activity.
Always announce contest winners
Communicating the result gives participants a clear conclusion to the campaign and helps reinforce transparency.
Depending on the format, you can announce the winner through an Instagram post or Reel, publish a Winners Page, or share other winner communication that clearly confirms the outcome.
Ready to Run Your Instagram Contest?
The best Instagram contest format depends on what you want participants to do and what you want the campaign to achieve.
A simple comment giveaway can generate quick interaction, while Story campaigns and Mention & Hashtag contests can encourage UGC and extend visibility. For campaigns that require registrations, galleries, voting, or more control over participation, a microsite-based contest is usually the better option.
With Easypromos, we can manage all of these formats from a single digital engagement platform and adapt the participation flow to your campaign goals.
Create a free account to start testing different Instagram contest formats, or contact us via live chat if you want help choosing the right mechanic for your campaign.
